Ham-to-Ham Combat

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When a work is populated by more than one Large Ham, and at least two get a scene together, it will usually turn into Ham-to-Ham Combat, where they try to out-over dramatic each other. The scene can become either really funny or really corny, or both, and really fast. If it goes too far, it may reach a Hormel Event Horizon.

Note that they do not have to be enemies. It can be the Big Bad and The Dragon trying to out-evil-laugh each other, or a pair of heroes spouting Bond One Liners as they mow down the Mooks. The point is that their screen presences and overacting are competing.

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Examples:

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Anime & Manga

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is filled to the brim with those, but usually the final battle of each part takes the cake when it comes to haminess, such as Dio Brando vs. Jonathan Joestar, Joseph Joestar and Rudolph Von Stroheim vs. Kars or Jotaro vs. DIO.

In the Dynamic Heroes e-manga (a Crossover featuring the main Go Nagai series), Kouji Kabuto fought Great Marshall Of Hell as riding Mazinger. The two of them have very hammish tendences. It is noteworthy as it was, maybe, the first time in the history of the franchise Kouji and Dr. Hell faced each other directly as both were riding giant robots. Too bad it was a Curb-Stomp Battle.

And in Great Mazinger the legendary duel between Tetsuya and Great General of Darkness. They were trying not only to kill each other but also out-ham each other.

In the first episode of Brotherhood, Isaac MacDougal gets a chance to do this with Alex.

Pretty much every card game in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series, especially in the 4Kids dub, where all the ham levels are cranked up to eleven.

Just one example would be Marik vs. Yami Bakura in Battle City in the 4Kids dub. The two feel the need to remind the other every ten seconds that Once they lose this duel they'll be BANISHED TO THE SHADOW REALM! MWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Even after losing and while being absorbed by the shadows, Yami Bakura doesn't think of dialing down the ham exclaiming: "Don't you realise, that I am the darkness? [...] It's simple, it means I can't be destroyed. You haven't seen the last of me! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

In Sgt. Frog, the snowball fight between Giroro and Paul was at least one of these in the dub.

Guy: I'll show you...the true power of courage! Palparepa: You will show me?!

The Angel Beats! OVA takes this Up to Eleven. As part of a plan to trick Angel, Yuri pretty much orders an Apocalypse of Ham where everyone tries to out-ham each other with the Tension Meter. If the plan fails, everyone fasts (including no water) for a week. Shiina of all people wins, bringing the Tension Meter up to 9999 just by saying "CUTE!!!" The plan still fails, though. Good thing Death Is Cheap!

Yuri herself brings the Tension Meter to it's second highest rate (99) a few minutes earlier due to laughing her ass off in the most maniacal way imaginable when she's thinking about how well the plan is going and how it looks to be successful. It could be argued that she ends up the winner when her shouting that the Battlefront must not eat for an entire week at the top of her lungs causes the Tension Meter to rapidly drop all the way down into the negative numbers for everyone around her.

Bleach: Tite Kubo admitted he struggles to write fights in a serious way and can only do it by involving jokes along the way. Many characters therefore ramp up the ham during battles. Only the most important battles lack any humour to showcase just how significant they are. To wit:

Yumichika versus Charlotte kicked off with Yumichika trying to fight with his eyes closed so he wouldn't have to look at Charlotte and them calling each other ugly until they agreed the loser would be the ugly one. It sets up an abrupt Mood Whiplash into a very serious Let's Get Dangerous! reveal of Yumichika's true power.

Ikkaku's fight against Shishigawara is Played for Laughs due to him using it to teach Shishigawara how to fight like a man... by them beating the snot out of each other with their fists. Ikkaku wins the fight with a massive, hammy headbutt — but not before he pops his dislocated shoulder back into place with a muscle flex while screaming "FUCK YEAH", much to Shishi's horror.

Mila Rose and Apacci from Harribel's Amazon Brigade simply can't be in the same scene/panel without punching/kicking/screaming/etc. at each other. In the meantime, Sung-Sun will snark at them from the background.

Being two Large HamMad Scientists, Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Szayel Aporo Ganz's match was not just a matter of who was the creepiest, but also of who was the hammiest. And Mayuri wins spectacularly in the end.

Renji Abarai and Buzz-B scream insults at each other until Renji insults Bazz-B's mohican. Bazz-B's so enraged, he reveals he had really liked Renji's tattooed eyebrows. Renji is utterly thrilled, but Bazz-B tells him it's too little, too late. Meanwhile, a disbelieving Rukia snarks their behaviour in the background.

Mayuri's decision to fight Giselle turns into chaos due to Mayuri's decision to bring "allies" that he has secretly implanted with punishment devices to inflict Electric Torture directly inside their brains. He ends up arguing more with them than with Giselle. He revives Cirucci, Dordonni, Luppi and Charlotte For Science! with their personalities intact. Cirucci and Dordonni are obsessed with finding Ichigo and Uryuu, Luppi resents being saddled with them and they all mistrust Mayuri. Meanwhile, Charlotte's busy annoying Yumichika, accusing Giselle of being a Drag Queen and randomly trying to hit Mayuri with Bambietta's body.

Gintama: Happen usually when Gintoki stop goofing around to fight the Arc Big Bad. Like his fight with Hosen, one of the rare cases where he had to Dual-Wield. But the kabuki-cho four devas arc take the cake with the confrontation between the Yorozuya and the mob lead by Saigo, and the final fight between Gintoki and Jirocho when they charge at each other while screaming.

In Kotoura-san, Manabe and Kotoura's grandfather get into a perverted argument about Haruka in episode 4, the grandfather bragging about direct contact with her thighs and butt, Manabe about the joy of seeing her flustered face, by deliberately thinking dirty things about her so as to invoke herDirty Mind-Reading.

The latest thus far is Goku vs Frieza. The latter loses his cool the more Goku demonstrates his stupidity by being oblivious of Frieza's insults and making random shouts at each other. Frieza finally snaps and goes all Large Ham and so does Goku upon becoming Super Saiyan.

Recoome spends his sweet time boasting and yelling in his fight with Vegeta, who in turn tried to shut him up, right after they had a theme song introduction.

Ginyu vs Goku. Impressive considering the fight was only seen for a few seconds. Ginyu compliments Goku's skill in battle whereas Goku comments on his skin color (purple).

King of Hearts: What do you know of this unfortunate affair? March Hare: Nothing. Queen of Hearts:NOTHING WHATEVER??!?!?March Hare:NATTHING WHATEVVAAAH!!!!!!Queen of Hearts:THAT'S VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!

Robin Hood: Prince John as a spoiled, petulant brat, vs. Sir Hiss as a neurotic, scheming chancellor, devour the scenery with gusto. Matters get even hammier when Little John shows up in the royal box in disguise as the Duke of Chutney.

Which makes perfect sense that the next film's focus is around Jack and Barbossa. Because like the first film proved, how can one not have fun watching Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush, two of the finest actors alive, having a ham contest in pirate garb and dialogue?

Barbossa: What ARRR ya doin'? Sparrow: What are YOU doing? Barbossa: NO! What ARRRRRR ya doin'!? Sparrow: What are YOU doing? Barbossa: No, What AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR you doing?

Then after that, another ham steps in:

Pintel:STOW IT! THE BOTH OF YOU! THAT'S AN ORDER! UNDERSTAND?! (Jack and Barbossa stare at him in surprise) ...Sorry, I just thought with the captain issue in doubt I'd throw in my name for consideration.

Star Trek II. William Shatner on one starship, Ricardo Montalban on the other, spending the entire film blasting the crap out of each other while shaking the galaxy with their thunderous overacting. Via video link — they never share a room with each other. Scream it with me now: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! Shatner and Montalban never even met on set; they filmed their roles months apart and were hamming it up with (mostly) the script girl who was reading their counterpart's lines.

Obviously for a movie set in a World of Ham, Repo! The Genetic Opera encounters this quite a bit. The most notable example is in the song "Mark It Up", where all three Largo siblings are trying to out-ham each other.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian has this when Larry does his last stand against Kamunrah. Secret of the Tomb does this when Lancelot crashes a staging of Camelot and has Hugh Jackman trying to counter him.

The Duke and Zilder in Moulin Rouge!, most noticeable in the "Like a Virgin" scene.

Very interestingly averted: when Cary Elwes and Chris Sarandon finally meet, it looks like they're about to engage in ham-to-ham combat, but Elwes' character instead instantly defeats the prince with his classic To the Pain speech.

The "Battle Of Wits" between Cary Elwes and Wallace Shawn, however, definitely qualifies. Which is rather a bit of a subversion as well, because Cary Elwes subdues his part quite a bit while Wallace Shawn, well...

Mary of Scotland: In the 1936 Katharine Hepburn and Fredric March film, the entire cast seems to be engaged in ham-to-ham combat, with the possible exception of John Carradine, who during filming once said to "Katherine of Arrogance," who had expressed a desire to play both Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I, "If you did that, how would you know which queen to upstage?" If John Carradine is the least hammy member of your cast, something has Gone Horribly Wrong. Or maybe right.

Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes as Zeus and Hades, respectively, in the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans. Any time they are onscreen together (or with any other actor). No exceptions.

After Jack Nicholson had Batman (1989) all for himself, the three other movies had a Villain Team-Up that served as an excuse for the bad guys trying to overact each other. Then again, it is Got Ham City.

Danny De Vito (The Penguin) and Michelle Pfeifer (Catwoman) in Batman Returns. Even canaries are (nearly) chewed along with the scenery.

Batman Begins makes this a plot point; Ducard teaches Bruce Wayne that theatricality can be a powerful weapon, and Bruce Wayne, the character, starts Chewing the Scenery to intimidate criminals. He ends up facing Dr. Jonathan Crane, who dresses up as Scarecrow and uses similar tactics. The Dark Knight follows the same concept; Bale vs. Ledger is going on, but Batman vs. Joker is ham to ham combat in the story.

Thor: L.A.M. gives us a celestial-level Ham-to-Ham Combat when the Norse gods took it to scenery eating levels. During the banishment scene, arguably the scene featuring this trope, Hopkins takes this to new levels when he inexplicably barks at Loki. (This has become a meme among the fandom. "HAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!")

Avengers: Infinity War: When the Guardians of the Galaxy rescue Thor, Quill attempts to reassert his authority as most of his team is entirely subjugated by Thor's appearance (and Rocket is snickering at him losing it), including a failed attempt at making his voice more dramatic. As Thor has no idea he's being challenged, it comes off as Large Ham vs. Cold Ham (cold wins).

In the film version of Arsenic and Old Lace, director Frank Capra told Cary Grant and Raymond Massey to go wild on camera. The result is Grant playing the dashing yet hapless hero Mortimer to the scenery-chewing maximum, while Raymond Massey plays his psychotic older brother Jonathan in reverent homage to Boris Karloff whom his character is supposed to resemble.

Twisted in on itself when Men in Black III uses time travel to have Jemaine Clement's character trying to out ham his younger self.

The famous darts scene in Son of Frankenstein. You might as well replace Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill's dialogue with "See here, I'm about to out-act you!" "Oh really? Well, I say I'M about to out-act YOU!"

This scene is parodied in Young Frankenstein — that is, if it's possible to parody something by doing basically the exact same thing.

Alan Rickman versus Ralph Fiennes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, at the very beginning. Interestingly enough, rather than go the whole nine yards with their roles ("NYEEEEEEEHHHHHHH!" and "POTTER!" respectively), they seemed to be having a contest about who could be the most subdued while still being the most dramatic. At several points, Fiennes even uses dramatic pauses like Rickman is famous for.

"Agony" from Into the Woods, complete with ripping shirts open, kneeling and swooning in the waterfall, before getting up in search of a more dramatic-looking part of the waterfall to sing at. Did we mention it's set in a waterfall?

The Ten Commandments has, quite literally, an epic (indeed, Biblically Epic!) ham fight between Yul "As it is written so let it be done!" Brenner and Charlton "Let my people go!" Heston. The high water mark of classic Hollywood hamminess? And then Anne Baxter enters the fray and nearly outdoes both of them.

Birdman has this in-universe: Riggan Thompson is a stage actor, and suspects that his co-star Mike Shiner is overacting to try to steal the show.

In The Huntsman: Winter's War the battle of Ravenna and Freya is secondary to Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt fighting to chew the most scenery.

The Producers exists in a World of Ham, so this is only to be expected, but worth particular mention is the opening sequence in the 1967 film version when Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder's characters first meet. Mostel goes on a screaming rampage and Wilder has a panic attack.

Death Becomes Her is all about Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, and Bruce Willis indulging in Ham and Cheese - and the latter two also each have a scene with Isabella Rossellini, who might be even the worst of them all. The "combat" part is specially prevalent as a just-dead Hawn indulges in a shovel fight with Streep, both shouting insults at the top of their lungs.

In Descendants 3, Mal (who gets an overly-dramatic solo at least once per film) and Hades (one of the hammiest villains in the Disney Animated Canon) have a father-daughter argument in song form. And it is glorious.

Literature

The first meeting between Gustav Adolph and Mike Stearns in 1632 is described as a lion (Gustav) fighting a tiger (Mike).

This is invoked when Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, in Fritz Leiber's "Swords in the Mist", where the two heroes meet unexpectedly as the champions of opposite sides in an arranged combat. They use traded insults and challenges to covertly establish the rules of what becomes, unbeknownst to their respective employers, a staged combat instead of a battle royal.

The argument between Severus Snape and Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix escalates quickly into childish name-calling. Considering both characters are scene-stealing and bombastic on their own, the fact that they have a scene together at all should make the wizarding world explode. Just imagine if the scene had been in the movie.

Daylen and Ahrek occasionally get into this. Ahrek is usually calm, but he's capable of matching Daylen shout for shout. The page image is not a bad indication of how they interact, especially as Ahrek is giving Daylen lessons in controlling his rage.

Warhammer 40,000: In the Ciaphas Cain novel Cain's Last Stand, the confrontation between Cain and Warmaster Varan starts out like this. Then they fight.

Live-Action TV

In General:

Basically a recurring element in Soap Operas. This can go Up to Eleven with Latin American telenovelas, and Filipino teleseryes which were influenced by the aforementioned telenovelas.

As in the case of Maria Mercedes and its 2013 Philippine remake, and countless others that are basically rags-to-riches fairy tales with the underdog emerging from the slums and managing to out-rant at the aristocratic snobs...

...and in the children's drama seryeAnnaliza where the eponymous Shrinking Violet ends up getting bullied and pissed at by her Attention Whore sister.note Which the latter is being influenced by her mother into doing, mostly to kick the protagonist off what they think is her spotlight. It degenerates even more to a full-blown ham battle when even the adults are pissing the living daylights out of each other due to issues within their family, all while a Big Bad is plotting something sinister at Anna and her family.

By Series:

Whenever occasional guest star Will Arnett's character gets into it with Jack Donaghy. Lampshaded by Liz Lemon when she affects a deep, gravelly, "intimidating" voice and asks if they're going to have a "talking-like-this contest".

Devon: I'm honestly not trying to make this sound gay. Jack: No one is, it's just happening.

Londo and G'Kar, pretty much every time they met in the first couple of seasons led to a spectacular argument with actors Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas trying to out-ham each other.

Ham is part of the job description for any Centauri ambassador.

The climax of "Moments of Transition" turns into three-way Ham To Ham Combat between Delenn, Neroon, and Shakiri. The part where Neroon makes his Heroic Sacrifice elevates the whole thing to Narm levels.

In a similar vein, Colbert squared up with Papa BearO'Reilly on an episode of the O'Reilly Factor. It was Colbert with his energetic antics versus O'Reilly and his legendary Snark. The battle was truly legendary.

Even the cast and crew weren't averse to a bit of it among themselves. Roy Skelton, one of the Dalek voice actors during the classic series, says he and his colleagues would often compete with each other on set, to see who could be the most evil-sounding Dalek.

Averted, surprisingly, in "The Underwater Menace". The normally quite over-the-top Patrick Troughton prepares to go up against the incarnation of Evil Is Hammy in the form of Professor "Noffink in zuh VORLD can SHTOP ME NOOOW!!" Zaroff... and scales his performance right down so he manages to upstage Zaroff by using his own ham against him. This is something his Doctor tended to do a lot  only ramping up the drama against a hammy villain if it was as part of a bluff, or when he's completely losing his cool at the end of "The War Games".

"The Five Doctors", between Richard Hurndall replacing Hartnell, Troughton, and Pertwee, with Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor positively restrained in comparison. Extra ham from Anthony Ainley as The Master and Richard Mathews as Rassilon.

"The Day of the Doctor" has Tennant's Ten, Matt Smith's Eleven, and John Hurt's Eight-and-a-Half hamming it up together. And then Tom Baker shows up and blows Matt Smith off the screen in a performance that is even relatively restrained by his standards.

"The Horns of Nimon": Lalla Ward almost manages to out-ham Tom Baker himself. He resists the onslaught, but then, unbelievably, they are both beaten  completely and utterly beaten  by Graham Crowden as Soldeed. His famous DREEEeeeAAAAaaAaAAAAms of CONquest are only the icing on the cake. He overacts so outrageously that he manages to corpse during his own death scene and it was still put in because it wasn't breaking character.

"The King's Demons", for the master class in ham from Gerald Flood's King John and Anthony Ainley's Master. Gerald Flood's performance is utterly magnificent. It's been a while since they boilllled someone in oilll.

Colin Bakeragain in "Timelash" where he squares off against Paul "Avon" Darrow. As has been said elsewhere, the resulting combat has to be seen to be disbelieved.

There's a truly spectacular ham-off between Colin Baker and BRIAN BLESSED in "Mindwarp". No wonder Peri (Nicola Bryant) left the show after this; it would be physically impossible to be exposed to such overwhelming hammy glory for more than five minutes without ending up either dead or pregnant.

"Ghost Light" is famous for two things: its Neon Genesis Evangelion level of incomprehensibility, and the sheer level of glorious over-acting by every. Single. Cast. Member. Even the extras. Somehow, though, it manages to be utterly awesome and a firm fan-favourite.

Cyberman:Daleks be warned, you have declared war on the Cybermen!Dalek:THIS. IS. NOT. WAR! THIS. IS. PEST. CONTROL!

Whenever the Tenth Doctor and Donna get into a ham-off, it's epic. And Catherine Tate's very first appearance as Donna Noble had her up against the Racnoss Empress, truly one of the largest hams the series has ever seen. Tate as Donna Noble also has another special distinction: In "Partners in Crime", thanks to a sheet of soundproof glass, she and David Tennant had what might be one of the first silent examples of Ham-to-Ham Combat.

Let's not forget Donna's epictacular send off  the FOUR-WAY Kombat between the Doctor, the Doctor-Donna, the Donna-Doctor and Davros in "Journey's End". It is GLORIOUS.

River Song is an incredible ham when she's very young, and Alex Kingston has a lot of fun overacting when her character gets to meet the Doctor for the first time (from her perspective). Eleven decides to accessorize with an impeccable top hat and tails tuxedo for the occasion while wildly gesticulating with a cane. It's absolutely incredible.

Every time Strax shows up. He will find an excuse to pick a fight with anything that moves and promptly obliterate it with anything from laser monkeys to acid traps, and grenades. ESPECIALLY grenades.

"The Husbands of River Song": River Song, the 12th Doctor, and a constantly-shouting Hydroflax (even when he's just a head in a sack). Gloriously over the top. Special note of the Doctor's Bigger on the Inside speech when River doesn't know yet who he is and they enter the TARDIS, and he describes how he thinks such a speech really should go.

The Doctor:Oh... my... GOD! It's bigger! River: Well, yes. The Doctor: On the inside! River: We need to concentrate. The Doctor: Than it is! River: Yeah, I know where you're going with this, but I need you to calm down. The Doctor: On the outside! River: You've certainly grasped the essentials. The Doctor:[prowling round the console, gesturing wildly] My entire understanding of physical space has been transformed! Three-dimensional Euclidean geometry has been torn up, thrown in the air and snogged to death! My grasp of the universal constants of physical reality has been changed... forever. [beat] Sorry. I've always wanted to see that done properly.

In the second episode of Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, Jeff Davis and Chip Esten get into one of these while singing that little-known jazz ballad "Dust Storm". Near the end, Jeff puts his hand over Chip's mouth, then Chip grabs Jeff's microphone and sings the last line into two mics at once.

The rivalry between Frasier and Cam Winston was truly a joy to behold.

Whenever Frasier and Niles got worked up with each other was the cue for an impromptu ham-off, due in equal parts to their natural pompous demeanors, their high education levels and established familiarity with theater, opera, and musicals, and their Sibling Rivalry urging them to show off by trying to outdo each other in the dramatically complex insults and long, hard-to-pronounce words departments. Also, Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce having too much fun for their own good.

A scene in Friends has Joey and Gary Oldman devolving into one of these as both attempt to spit more in their dialogue.

The main characters in How I Met Your Mother absolutely love, love, LOVE doing this, usually over very bizarre, trivial, or theoretical disputes, and usually while sitting in their booth in McLaren's. So commonplace is it to see them over-dramatically (and often over-eloquently) yelling and cussing at each other in the middle of the crowded bar over, say, what the most common food in America is, that Fridge Logic forces the conclusion that their Ham To Ham Combat must be a well-known, taken-for-granted fixture of the bar, or else it would draw dozens of gawking spectators or scare customers away.

Ham-to-Ham Combat was really the basis of Hawkeye and Trapper's (later B.J.) whole relationship in M*A*S*H. This was as much their characters desperately trying to deflect the horror around them with silly puns, as it was Alda, Rogers, and Farrel having altogether too much fun working together.

The Match Game regulars and host Gene Rayburn turned the ham up, but when it came to Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly, pork flew fast and thick.

Any scene in Mork & Mindy with Exidor and Mork. Exidor is a role that requires the finest hamming, and Mork is... well, Robin Williams.

Any episode of Our Miss Brooks where Madison High Principal Osgood Conklin faces his archrival, Clay City High School Principal Jason Brill.

Or put Anubis (who takes the traits of your average System Lord Up to Eleven) up against President Henry Hayes, who goes full confident folksy politician. While relatively subdued compared to Anubis, after their conversation is over he asks his staff "Did I overdo it?"

In just about every episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, William Shatner brings enough ham to the table to feed a small nation. But in "The Doomsday Machine", he meets his match in Captain Matt Decker. Shatner wisely chose not to engage Ham-to-Ham with William Windom. His performance is for the most part very subdued, making Decker look even more deranged.

Kirk: Matt, where's your crew? Decker: ...On the fourth planet. Kirk: There is no fourth planet! Decker: Don't you think I know that? THERE WAS! BUT NOT ANYMORE!!

The TOS episode "Whom Gods Destroy" featured a veritable clash of the titans between Shatner and Steve Ihnat. When Inhat's character disguises himself as Kirk (and is thus played by Shatner) it's a miracle that the universe didn't collapse in on itself.

About Shatner: look at most of the big-name guest appearances on most of his shows. Basically, Shatner is the Iron Ham, and any show he's on automatically becomes Ham Arena. Presumably, it's every actor's dream to go Ham-to-Ham vs. Shatner.

On Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ambassador Sarek comes aboard the Enterprise — and brings aboard a Hate Plague in the form of Bendii Syndrome, a degenerative disease causing him to lose his emotional control. Coupled with Vulcan telepathy, it causes him to inadvertently project bursts of anger onto random people, leading to such disturbances as a Bar Brawl and a shouting match between Picard and Riker on The Bridge.

Then there was the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Rules of Engagement". In the red corner: Avery Brooks as Ben Sisko, one of the few Starfleet captains who could give Kirk a run for his money. In the blue corner, Ron Canada as targ-acting Klingon Amoral Attorney Ch'pok. Given that the judge was a Vulcan, and thus unlikely to be swayed by mere volume, presumably they were trying to intimidate each other.

As if that wasn't ham-tastic enough, "Waltz" provides Sisko's next major competitor: former Cardassian ruler (i.e., Dominion pawn) Gul Dukat, driven insane by the loss of both his conquest of the Alpha Quadrant and his daughter, Ziyal. And just to make it an even bigger ham sandwich, hallucinations of Kira, Weyoun, and Damar take turns screwing with what's left of his mind. If they hadn't been able to escape the uninhabited planet they were stranded on, they could've feasted on their own ham for the rest of their lives.

We could be here all week if we tried to list all the examples in the genre of Power Metal considering the prominence of Large Hams and guest vocalists. Special mention, however, goes to the following:

Ayreon is described on its page as an excuse for the "who's who of Progressive Metal to compete to out-ham each other."

Avantasia, much like Ayreon, gets this as a direct result of the numerous guest vocals. The songs "The Wicked Symphony" and "Stargazers" in particular have managed to bring together three (four in the case of "Stargazers") of the largest hams in power metal by having Tobias Sammet, Russell Allen, Jorn Lande and, in the case of "Stargazers," Michael Kiske all sing on the same songs.

Allen/Lande is a superband that came together entirely for the purposes of this trope in regards to the aforementioned Russell Allen and Jorn Lande.

Depending on whom you ask, Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman's Spirituals in Concert & Mythodea concerts were either the most sublime music of their genre (especially the latter) or a massive friendly showdown of two divas trying to outham each other (especially the former).

Heavy metal is made of this trope, especially if a band has two lead guitarists (Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing of Judas Priest, most famously). They'll hit all the highest notes, play the fastest riffs, and do everything short of tickling their guitars to death. The hammiest of them can not only short-circuit their guitars, but cause them to melt.

Daemonic Angel's song "That Which Is Wrought of Fear." It consists entirely of two "Metal Screaming" vocalists, playing the part of a demon and a monster slayer, talking trash on each other. It then ends with a flurry of lyrical trade-offs before the both of them let out a massive unison roar.

Really, any "good" match. Professional Wrestling is built on a solid foundation of PURE HAM. Promo confrontations between feuding wrestlers literally are an undiluted form of this trope. And in the setups to multi-man matches like the Elimination Chamber or Money in the Bank, you'll inevitably get a scene where every participant in the match comes out to cut a promo at the same time.

This is part of why the rivalry between The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was so fun to watch (the other was that the men were good friends in real life and relished the opportunity to give the other a good-natured ribbing).

Just about any time The Rock and Mick Foley were together could be described as this. Whether they were feuding, or teaming up as 'The Rock N Sock Connection', they always seemed to be trying to outdo one another in hamminess.

Chicago: The climactic scene of the original play note not the musical is a contest between Billy and Roxie to decide who can do more to guilt the jury into exonerating her. Billy makes his closing argument furiously Chewing the Scenery, but Roxie, not willing to let her lawyer steal the show from her, wins without uttering a single line of dialogue.

The two princes singing "Agony" in Into the Woods frequently takes this form. It's in the script. "Agony! Far more painful than yours!"

In a recorded production of Jekyll & Hyde starring David Hasselhoff as the eponymous character(s), he's at his highest level of ham in the climactic song "Confrontation". Why is that an example of this trope? Because Jekyll and Hyde both sing that song. That's right, The Hoff can have Ham-to-Ham Combat with HIMSELF.

Les Misérables: Any scene between Valjean and Javert. Notable on the original cast album with Colm Wilkinson and Roger Allam, taken to extremes with Alfie Boe and Norm Lewis in the 25th Concert.

Cirque du Soleil's Mystère turns the eternal struggle that is Order Versus Chaos into this, pitting the conceited emcee Moha-Samedi against story-intruder Brian Le Petit. This climaxes with the emcee declaring "GET OUT!" and Brian taking on a look sooooooo pitiable that one can't help but "Awwwww..." for him... which is his intention — effectively calling upon hammy reinforcements.

Peer Gynt: The titular character goes head to head with almost everybody else currently on stage. It begins with the first exchange of lines:

Aase: PEEEER! You are LYYYING!!! Peer: NO! I AM NOT!!! ...and so forth.

Older Than Radio: Mozart's opera-within-an-operaDer Schauspieldirektor has two sopranos both insisting "Ich bin die erste Sängerin" ("I am the prima donna") and seeking to prove their claim with abundant coloratura.

Wicked has a scene set almost immediately after Dorothy leaves munchkinland in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz where Elphaba and Glinda begin bickering and eventually catfight. Now, Glinda is miscast if she's not a Large Ham but the special treat in this scene is the actress playing Elphaba beginning to ham it up as well. It's also the last comic scene in the show too, so the actresses clearly like to have fun with it.

Irenicus: Once my lust for power was everything, but now I hunger only for revenge, AND I. SHALL. HAVE IT! Minsc: I am tired of shouting battle-cries at this mage! Boo will finish his eyeballs once and for all so that he does not rise again! Evil! Meet my sword! Sword! Meeet eeeeviiiil!

Metal Gear lives on this trope. Rather try to find any characters that are completely unhammy.

Garland: We will never come to accept one another. WE SHALL ALWAYS BE IN CONFLICT!

Since voice-acting was introduced, the games seem to do this rather regularly. Special mention has to be given to Tidus and Yuna's Stylistic Suck laughing scene in Final Fantasy X, although Wakka and Rikku came close to out-doing them with their regular sentence-ending occurrences of "yah?" and "y'know?"

Planescape: Torment has one where Ravel (Crazy Ham) meets The Transcendent One (Evil Sounds Deep). Or the ending sequences of PS:T in the Fortress of Regrets for that matter. You don't even need the sound. The writing at that point is sufficiently epic to convey the "hamminess" all by itself.

Dante vs. Agnus before their fight in Devil May Cry 4, a bizarre in-universe example. For starters, the fight happened in a trashed opera house, so we have Agnus opening with poetic dialogue and Dante following suit, complete with stage lights (whoever mans them probably does so out of fear of evisceration) as well as stage props like benches and confetti. It really has to be seen.

Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. Any stronghold mission featuring two of the following: Space Marines, Orks, Chaos, Imperial Guard, and Eldar (exception: if Eldar are on defense). Two grimdark hams will duke it out along with their armies.

At the end of the level "The Covenant", the Arbiter, Gravemind, and the Prophet of Truth all have a scene together. Truth's participation ends with:

Truth: I! Am! Truuth! The vooiiice of the Covenant!Arbiter: And so, you must be silenced. (stab)

Right afterwards, Gravemind chimes in with an evil laugh and a rhyming verse describing how he's now unstoppable.

Gravemind: Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside! Corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must ABIDE!

The levels in Halo 2 when you fight the Elite heretics as the Arbiter, alongside your own Elite allies. The Elites being a race of Large Hams, this trope crops up frequently.

Sesa Refumee: I wondered who the Prophets would send to silence me. An Arbiter... I'm flattered. Rtas Vadumee: He's using a holo-drone. Come out so we may kill you! Sesa: Heheh... get in line. Also: Arbiter:Turrrrn, heretic. Sesa: Arbiter. I would rather die by your hands than let the Prophets lead me to slaughter. Arbiter: Who has taught you these liiies?

Tiberium Twilight gives it a good showing between Joseph Kucan and Iona Morris.

Tiberian Dawn averts this for the vast majority of the game... but not through a lack of ham from the actors (most of the recurring ones ham up at one point or another). There just aren't all that many scenes with more than one actor.

Almost all dialogue in the God of War games defaults to this. It was ancient Greece, they hadn't invented indoor voices yet.

Wallace and Vaida's supports in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. Armoured general Wallace is already a loud Boisterous Bruiser by himself, but when he meets this wyvern-riding Dark Action Girl with a scarred face and a no-nonsense attitude, the scenery becomes dense with their combined hamminess as they attempt to assert their superiority over one another in combat. Observe.

Vaida: There you are, you bald old fossil. Still smarting from our competition? Wallace: Bald old fossil!? You spitting cobra! Are you trying to make me share in your bitterness at being so soundly defeated the other day? Vaida:Spitting cobra? I rather like that! But victory was mine the other day... So now which one of us is bitter? Wallace: You talk madness, woman! By what reckoning do you believe I lost to your pathetic display? Surely we are not talking about the same battle! I was perfection unleashed... Those lance thrusts were blindingly fast, intoxicating in their sublime form! Vaida: Wishful thinking, teapot! You were no prize on the battlefield! I saw you poke each unit one by one with your little needle... The whole thing took ages! Wallace: Well, all I saw was a big lump of grey flesh flitting about in the sky and belching on occasion! And your wyvern wasn't much better!Vaida: ...Well, obviously, we have not settled our score at all!

First take Jack, whose natural hammy theatrics are Turned Up to Eleven when in Musical Assassin mode then pit him in dance fights with huge song and dance sequences — complete with backup dancers (no, really, you can actually sing and dance most the bosses into submission Broadway style) — against the following:

Oogie Boogie, who is voiced by Ken Page, who has voiced some of the hammiest musical characters in in the last 30 years.

Killzone 3 casts Malcolm McDowell and Ray Winstone as Chairman Stahl and Admiral Orlock, the top rivals for leadership of the Helghast. They chew much scenery during committee meetings, and eventually go to the logical extreme of literal combat while still spitting scenery at each other.

Diablo III, being the World of Ham that it is, often has this during dramatic scenes. The most obvious example is the cinematic between Act I and II, depicting Tyrael and Imperius' argument that led to Tyrael's (willing) fall.

Imperius: TYRAEL! The ancient law of the High Heavens strictly forbids us from interfering with the mortal world. Yet YOU have done so! BRAZENLY! Tyrael: All I am guilty of, Imperius, is bringing JUSTICE! While you hide, COWERING, behind your throne! Imperius: SILENCE! You will now answer for your transgressions! Tyrael: You CANNOT judge me! I am Justice itself! We were meant for more than this—to protect the INNOCENT! But if our precious laws BIND you all to INACTION... then I will no longer stand as your brother!Imperius: SACRILEGE!

The dialogue in Ganondorf's segment of Hyrule Warriors is mostly composed of Zant and Ghirahim competing for who can be a hammier kiss ass towards their boss. Ganondorf, in turn, admonishes them both and reminds them he is the largest ham of them all.

The Silver Shroud questline in Fallout 4 allows the otherwise stoic Sole Survivor to pretend to be Radio Drama crimefighter the Silver Shroud and ham it up as a golden ageAnti-Hero. But it's only in the Automatron DLC, where the Mechanist, who has also taken up the identity of a comic book character, will acknowledge the Sole Survivor as the Silver Shroud, allowing the two to engage in gloriously hammy exchanges.

Crow: I won't let anyone interfere! This is going to be our final battle! Rean: That's exactly how I want it to be! We'll fight until we can fight no more... until our strength runs dry and our souls burn out! (cue epic screaming from the both of them)

Rean: I have to warn you - the International Bank of Rean has the highest interest rate on the continent.

Despite the potential in having very hammy villains in the Reapers, the Mass Effect series essentially averts this until Mass Effect 3 and an encounter during the Citadel DLC. Shepard finds Traynor playing Kepesh-Yakshi (nor, as Shepard calls it, "space chess") and they meet Polgara T'Suzsa, an asari player who Traynor has a rivalry with. Traynor and T'Suzsa have a grudge match, and soon the pork starts to flow, complete dramatic closeups.

Visual Novels

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: We could spend an entire day talking about this, but here's a sample: "OBJECTION!" "I SAID OBJECTION FIRST!" Reaching its logical conclusion:

Just about anytime a fight gets serious you can expect this. Quain'tana, Zala'ess (even more so when they're in the same scene) and pretty much all of the Knight Templar Kyorl'solenurn clan seem to have a steady diet of the comic's scenery.

The hammiest moment, bar none, is during Sil'lice's flashback where she battles the equally hamtacular Kalki, and Sil'lice's ham-a-thon when she returns to the Sharen fortress afterwards. They literallystart knocking down the scenery.

And again in The Langoliers, when the very hammy villain gets into an argument with a hallucination of his equally hammy father; the Critic decided to give them points based on how far their mouths opened while screaming.

Lindsay, Elisa and Nella go all out with each other in the Dark Nella Saga. Nella just about wins through Evil Is Hammy, but the other women put up a surprisingly good fight.

Linkara's crossover with Spoony to review Warrior #2 and #3 causes Insano versions of much of the Channel Awesome crew at the time to manifest at the end of the review and start fighting each other whilst taking advantage of the opportunity to gleefully overact. Special mentions go to Dr. InsanJoe, who channels Emperor Palpatine's over the top gesturing, and Dr. Bearsano, who in spite of being a teddy bear riding atop a mind-controlledBenzaie, manages to overact for two without actually speaking.

Optimus and Megatron are the masters of this trope, pretty much in every continuity (and they usually play it up during actual combat). Megatron and Starscream have their moments, too.

Unicron, Primus, and the Original 13 (7?), too, ham it up every time they activate their vocal processors, and go into overdrive when running combat subroutines.

Near the end of the Rebirth story arc, which serves as the conclusion to the original G1 cartoon, Spike Witwicky!Fortress Maximus and the evil Nebulan Lord Zarak!Scorponok have such an epic confrontation. In particular, Spike not only out-fights Lord Zarak, he arguably also manages to out-ham him. It has to be heard to be believed.

In Beast Wars Megatron and Tarantulas have formulated an Evil Plan. They begin to laugh in celebration. This becomes an Overly Long Gag as they try to have the last laugh.

Just about every fight between Autobots and Decepticons are this.

Invader Zim: Anybody going against Zim will inevitably be involved in one of these, although Tak is probably one of the best examples. Dib vs. Zim is an odd aversion: while both are accomplished Large Hams in their own right, whenever they have a scene together one or the other will generally fall into a more subdued Straight Man role...generally.

Dib: Just this once, we work together! Mortal enemies working together for the common good!Zim:BE QUIET!

Danny Phantom: Technus (who was a grade A ham from the start) versus Super Danny (who, apparently, is one of the hammiest characters of all without his human side to subdue it).

Xavier: You sound like the ugliest son of a bitch I ever heard! Other Xavier: YOU sound like the physical manifestation of some LOSER'S inner DEMONS! Xavier: YOU sound like some total chode's inability to confront his past actions! Other Xavier: If I ever hear one more word from your stinky mug, I swear to Jack-off I'll knock your clock off!

There are a lot of these, but special mention has to go to any scene involving Finn and Lemongrab together.

Lemongrab: TOO YOUNG! TOO YOUNG TO RULE THE KINGDOM! Finn:[puffs out his chest and slaps Lemongrab on the hand] WATCH your MANNERS with the PRINCESS! Lemongrab: HHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?! Finn: What the HUH?! Lemongrab:[frowning] MMMMMM...! [gasps] -MUH!

A villainous example occurs in Season 7 when Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker, Luna and Celestia's Super Powered Evil Sides, face off against each other in Starlight's dreamscape and unleash war cries and boasts to match their magical attacks.

Looney Tunes: Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck both would usually attempt to out-ham anyone else on the screen, so when the two of them faced off against each other (as in the "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" cartoons), it was epic.

Real Life

Frequently seen in high school drama classes, both on stage, and even more often it will happen when participating in improvisation games.

The United Nations can on occasion descend into this when representatives of two unpopular countries, like North Korea and Myanmar, end up in a debate with each other.

It happens a lot among sport fans: matches between teams that share a bitter rivalry with one another will see their respective fans fully indulge in this most of the time.

World War II: Patton and any other general. Special note goes to him and Montgomery: The invasion of Sicily would have probably been a lot less bloody for the Allies if the two weren't trying to show each other who was the better conqueror. The movie Patton had Patton say this line:

Patton: Hell, I know I'm a prima-donna, I admit it. The thing that bothers me about Monty [UK General Bernard Law Montgomery] is he won't admit it.

The British House of Commons, because of the incredibly adversarial setup of the Chamber, often features attempts by the Members to out-ham one another. A typical exchange generally goes like this:

Salt Lake City Comic Con 2013 had a panel featuring, for the first time ever, William Shatner and Adam West on stage together.

The Norwegian constituent assembly of 1814 had several. Most notably the on going feud between the speaker, principal of the University Georg Sverdrup known for his lack of indoor voice, and the priest Nicolay Wergeland (the father of Henrik Wergeland), known for his lengthy speeches. They continued out-hamming each other even when the constitution was signed and sealed.

As of September 2017, the war of words between the United States and North Korea, or rather, between Trump and Kim Jong-Un. However, given the stakes, this is less entertaining than disturbing for observers.

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You Can't Handle the Truth!

Lt. Kaffee and Colonel Jessup go all in this epic courtroom battle scene!